Roman~ 9 month update

When I think back over this past month two words immediately come to mind:

• teeth
• hair

Finally after much pain and discomfort your front teeth broke the skin.  It was like a big tooth explosion. I really miss your gummy smile.  I am happy to say that you are not stingy with the smiles and show off your choppers to everyone.  You are such a happy baby...

Your hair has also gone through a "growth spurt."  We were trying to hold out until your first birthday before trimming your beautiful locks, but..... it is getting a little scraggly!  You are the cutest hippie EVER!

You had a great month.  You are such a joy!  I was watching you the other day and realized that you are no longer a baby.  Sniff.  Sniff.  You are thriving and growing to be so big and strong.  You love to play and make us laugh.  I can not get enough of your belly laughs~ they are contagious.  You are so smart and quick.  You have mastered climbing the stairs.  You silently crept up to the first landing.  Just as quickly the baby gate is back in place.  ;)

We love you big big and it is a joy to watch you grow...

*My camera is STILL MIA.  Due to this I was unable to take "official" 9 month pictures.  :(  Here are some of my favorites from the month.  

"Mommy Shelia gone..."

Shelia has been working with G as his speech therapist since he was 18 months old.
She has been such a blessing
and a joy to work with.

Shelia has come over to our house faithfully once a week for one hour sessions.
Needless to say she and G have built quite a bond.

When they started working together he refused to "perform" and occasionally made sounds and single syllable utterances.
I am so proud to say that he has made tremendous progress.
I am so happy that she was able to witness the fruits of their labor.

Today was the last day that Shelia will be coming over.
It goes without saying.
We will miss her tremendously...

Thank you Shelia for your unconditionally support
and for believing in Griff every step of the way.
Thank you for loving him and being one of his greatest cheerleaders.

Today they worked outside.

 They had a ball drawing on the sidewalk.

 3...2...1... blastoff!

 Goodbyes are never easy.
I say this with a tear in my eye...

You are one of a kind!

 Blowing kisses...

 as she drove away
one last time...

We love you Shelia!

Weekend away...

I went to a ladies retreat this weekend,

"Stories worth telling."

It felt funny driving away from the house

with only a small overnight bag.

I listened to some courageous women 

tell their stories.

I met some new people,

spent some time with an old friend,

and talked to Jesus.

The hardest part for me was the quiet time.

When was the last time 

that I had 1 hour of silence?

This quiet time was good for my soul.

Artist in training

I started this art project for the playroom about 8 months ago.

I decided to wait to do the boys hands

until Roman was a little older and able to open his hand.

On a whim I decided to finish it up tonight

G showed great interest in painting.

After we finished the hand project he wanted to paint.

Call me crazy, but I said

ummm, sure!

Mind you this was NOT washable paint.

You only live once.... right?!?

You can probably imagine that we hovered over him

watched from a distance 

as he created his first mater piece.

Ladies and gentlemen...

I proudly present to you

"Abstract in green"

by Master G

I adore the fact that he is 

obviously

proud of his work.

I must say that 

we are too...

 Another notable fact:

I am going to go out on a limb and say

that I think he is following in his Momma's footsteps

as a lefty.

He has always favored his left,

but is now using it as his dominant hand.

:)

This is what it is all about...

I had a really good day today.

I believe that my family did too...

First stop of the day was church

followed by a Mardi Gras parade

with friends.

Throw me something Mister...
It took Griff a minute to settle in.
I can't say that I blame him.
It is a bit odd that people are throwing things at you.

Roman enjoying his first parade.
He was filled to the brim with Cheerios.
I think he liked it, or the Cheerios at least

The rest of the afternoon was spent at home

with my favorite boys.

I am looking forward to spending time outside.

Satch prepared a delicious meal, 

and shared a few pointers with his young student.

Nothing finer than enjoying a great meal

outside with great weather and my precious family.

We had a long day

and naps did not make the agenda.

:(

I enjoyed a little cuddle time with my favorite boys.

Roman fell asleep

in less than a minute

and G asked to go to bed

at 7:00.

I did not even make it 1/2 way into Peter Rabbit

when I looked over to see this.

Good night my precious babies,

dream big...

Let the good times roll~ First parade of the season

Today we went to our first parade of the season.
The Little Rascals

It was the perfect way to start the carnival season.
Parked close,
not very crowded,
and didn't have to wait.

Let the good times roll...

A "Walk" in the Park...

Okay, well not exactly a walk.  Anyone who

A. knows us 

or 

B. has encountered us on the street

knows that it is much more like a run.  

Satch had class today.  This morning we had our girl Emma and her Momma over to play.  Once they left I dug deep and found some super human Momma courage.  The day was much too pretty to stay inside.  After a quick pep talk of "I think I can, I think I can" I loaded up the boys to play at the park.

I have learned in my limited outings as a single parent (single as in for the day while Daddy is away) it is best to put Roman in a carrier and wear him so I can be a little quicker on my feet to run after play with G.  As we were exiting the car I explained to G the importance of listening to Mommy. 

Me: got it?

G: I pomise Mommy. (I promise Mommy)

I think he may have had his fingers crossed behind his back.  

Ahhhh, such an angel!  

Here we are.

So far so good.  

I knew I could do it...

We are off to a great start.

(okay so what if we were only 15 feet from the vehicle that we just exited)

G had a ball playing on the playground.

My plan was to let him run...

and run in hopes of wearing him out.

Naps are gooooddd!

Okay so I may have chased him once.

Across the park.

Use your imagination here and visualize this.

G running and laughing hysterically 

while mother with a 25 lb baby strapped to her RUNNING to catch him and not laughing hysterically.

You can laugh....

everyone else did.

Okay here we are again 

after we regrouped.

I had to give a firm reminder of our earlier "pomise."

G asked for a snack.

Note to self: next time get into car and give snack on ride home.

I guess I was now a little overconfident of my super mother abilities.

I thought it would be lovely to eat a snack on a bench while watching the ducks.

We went to the car pulled out the stroller,

loaded the boys

with snacks ready to go!

Here we are just as I imagined

having a fun snack 

on the bench.

I stopped to snap a picture 

of this monumental day.

All.Under.Control.

Here is Ro

snacking in the sunshine.

We couldn't exactly feed the ducks today

due to the fact that there is neither

hyde nor hair 

of a remnant of a carb 

within a 100 foot radius of our home.  

All good things must eventually come to an end

This is the exact moment that I lost control.

G ditched the stroller and wanted to guide the way.

He insisted that we go, "dat way."

Unfortunately, "dat way" was the wrong way.

I was unable to capture pictures of the way back to the car

due to the fact that I was pushing Ro in the stroller

while carrying G 

kicking and screaming the entire way.

I stopped to discuss the situation with him 3 times, 

but he was beyond the point.

Over stimulated and past the point of needing a nap.

FINALLY he zonked out in the car 

after about 30 more minutes of whining singing 

non-stop. 

Satch came home to my rescue.

After a hot bubble bath

and a self-pedicure

I think back on the afternoon and smile.

How can you stay mad at a kid who handed you a roll of toilet paper and says, 

"here Mommy poo-poo paper."  

Gotta love him...

Today wasn't that bad.

All in all it was actually pretty good.

The even better news is that

tomorrow is a new day...

boys to gentlemen

The first thing that attracted me to Satch was the way that he treated me.
Okay, not really the first thing.
Initially it was his beautiful baby blues and nice teeth.

He was a gentleman
and treated me with kindness and respect.
The way that all ladies should EXPECT to be treated.

Without fail he opened my car door,
entered a building after me,
held my hand,
and walked on the street side while I walked on the inside
as he gently guided me by the small of my back.

I pray that my boys treat ladies with the same respect
that their father treats their mother.

In the manners department
they are led by example.

My feet are dressed.

This morning I was fixing breakfast in the kitchen.

G brought over his 2 favorite pairs of my fancy shoes.

One for me 

and one for him.

I highly recommend 

wearing jammies and fancy shoes to cook breakfast.

The  eggs and grits just tasted

fancier...

I will do just about anything for a smile from my boys.  The fancy shoes also got a  big smile from the Daddy too...

After breakfast
it was time for our morning dance party.
G gave me a beat with his train whistle
while I tapped it out in my
fancy shoes.

Tuned out

Before becoming a parent I did not have many preconceived notions.  To be honest, I was blissfully naive.  However there was one thing that I was certain of.  My child would not watch any much television.  I had sweet visions of instead doing art projects, reading book, and playing board games.  Needless to say I sat in HORROR when Griffin was about a month old and fascinated by the television set.  So much so that I remember having a conversation with his pediatrician questioning if it would do major any damage to his long term development.  Looking back I can only imagine what she must have thought.

Now that I painted the picture of my fantasied life here is the real story.  Griffin LOVES television.  Over time my rules that I held steadfast to fell WAY to the wayside.  Things became even worse once Roman was born.  There were times that I truly needed for Griffin to watch television so I could tend to his baby brother.

Fast forward to the present.  We as a family have taken necessary steps to reclaim our child and our family.  This has happened through a series of events that has led us to this point.

1. Around Thanksgiving I turned off the TV for myself.  My initial thought was  I really wanted to enjoy the holiday season from Thanksgiving- Christmas.  I was tired of the constant noise that was surrounding me and the news was depressing enough to require medication.  For the record I was never a television junkie.  I am one of the few who has never watched an episode of Seinfeld, or Friends.  I did briefly get sucked into what the "Housewives" were up to and possibly even cared that Bethany got married, AND had a baby.  In November I turned off the television and turned on Pandora radio.  A few days later I just felt more relaxed and didn't really care to turn the T.V. back on.  The holidays came and went, but the television is still off.

2.  Satch is in school.  The limited "free" time that he has is not consumed by the television.

3. In January I was talking to some friends at a birthday party.  The subject of television came up.  They have also made similar family commitments.  One is all in and the other was slowly weaning herself of the beast.  A few days later I made a call to the cable company to slash our service.  I am strong in my convictions, but also a sucker for a bargain.  I hung up the phone with free HBO, and $30 off the monthly bill.  Today still not satisfied I called again.  Final verdict: bill is slashed by $50 a month, home phone service is limited, and Internet is also cut.  Ummmm, wasn't I calling to ditch the cable?  Never the less, steps in the right direction are being made.

4. We have always thought that it was odd that Griffin was so active yet could sit and watch The Wiggles.  We have learned that is actually pretty normal and television actually makes it worse.  Active children watch television and are so stimulated by the constant fast paced change of events.  Once they step back into the real world they expect the world to operate at that same pace.  Can't you see how this may present itself as a problem?!?  We have DRASTICALLY cut back his television consumption and he is a much happier child.  We do not believe in totally taking it away, but it comes with restrictions and is used as a reward.  This is really such a positive step.  Some days are harder than others, but we are really trying to keep it to a minimum.

Here is a perfect example of what I have missed over the past couple of months.  Monday evening my parents were with us and we were all driving together to a party.  Someone mentioned something about Charlie Sheen.  I assumed that they were referring to one of his past escapades.  They all looked at me like which rock have you been hiding under??  They proceeded to tell me the top 3 current news  stories.

1. Charlie Sheen and his "lifestyle" choices
2. Lindsay Lohan and her "lifestyle" choices (#1 and #2 seems to be repeat news)
3. Egypt

I asked you mean tabloid news right?  The response was no, this is top news.  So what have I missed while being turned out..... you tell me!

      

Night-night bookworm...

I am so happy that G has a re-newed love for books.

He has always loved books, 

but would not sit still long enough for me to read to him.

Regardless, I would read while he played.

With or without his attention.

Finally...

He is asking to read books.

This makes me happy.

G's selection of "light" reading before bed.

Not only handsome, but so smart too... ;)

And to all a good night!

Griffin's Best Seller List:
1. The Mine-O-Saur- Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
2. I am a Rainbow- Dolly Parton
3. Ten in the Bed- Penny Dale


This is too important not to note.  I enrolled Griffin in a United Way program sponsored by Dolly Parton. (yes, Dolly Parton)  Every month each enrolled child in the program until school age receives a FREE book in the mail to build up a home library.  "Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income."
http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/2